A Tuesday night game scheduled for 9 p.m. against a bottom-feeding ACC team is not exactly a formula for a great college basketball contest.

The announced attendance of 22,928 (which was actually about 4,000-5,000 less than that in the "butts in seats" category) at the Carrier Dome Tuesday night to see Syracuse play Virginia Tech reflected that.

It was as if the sports gods needed to teach us all a lesson that a memorable college basketball game can drop out of the sky any place, any time, as Syracuse snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat in
beating Virginia Tech 72-70
The sports gods provided the "any place, any time" lesson.

It was Syracuse guard Michael Gbinije who provided the perseverance.

Gbinije, using a terrific move where he drove left, spun back right and fired, dropped in winning shot with 0.1 seconds left on the clock.
"The play was set up to go to (Rakeem Christmas) at the sideline" Gbinije said. "My man that was guarding me just sagged off. I just drove in and tried to get a bucket in the paint."

During a conversation on
ESPN Radio Syracuse
on Tuesday, Boeheim interrupted me to say, "You think we're out of it?" when I listed the best teams in the ACC (Duke, Virginia, Louisville, Notre Dame and North Carolina) and left his team out of the discussion.

Syracuse, now 15-7 overall (6-3 in ACC play), still faces a steep uphill climb in league play with games against all those teams (except North Carolina, already a loss for the Orange) remaining.

And let's be honest here: Virginia Tech is a last-place team, and you needed to mount a 13-point comeback to win Tuesday night.

But on Tuesday night, Boeheim was right.

Syracuse was not out of it, and we were treated to an unexpected and entertaining college basketball game.

Lesson learned.

The Sunny Side

Here's how good Syracuse's defense was down the stretch, especially when they cranked up the press.

The Orange had 22 points off turnovers. 18 in the last 10 minutes of the game. Syracuse out-scored Virginia Tech 22-7 in the last six minutes of the game. Syracuse ended the game on a 15-4 run.

"The way we were, where we were, they've got four guards out there, we're a little bit tired, this comeback ranks up there with any that I've been a part of," Jim Boeheim said.

Michael Gbinije was the central figure in Syracuse's comeback win over Virginia Tech.

He not only hit the big shot to win the game, one Boeheim called "one of the best plays in that situation that I've seen," Gbinije had 18 points, seven assists and four steals overall.

Gbinije, a 48 percent free-throw shooter, struggled at the free-throw line again (6-for-10) but made the biggest two of the game with 18.9 seconds to go.

He also overcame four turnovers to score six points in the last 37 seconds of the game and ice the comeback win for the Orange.

Rakeem Christmas faced intense defensive pressure from the Hokies but still dropped 15 points, 12 rebounds and five blocks into the box score in all 40 minutes of the game.

"Rak got fouled on every play and they didn't call it," Boeheim said. "That's just the way it is. He's gotta play through it."

Gbinije was central to Syracuse's comeback, but Christmas kept the Orange within striking distance with a steady effort.

Stop me if you have heard that one before this season.

Trevor Cooney didn't have his best overall shooting night (38 percent, 2-for-12 from three-point range) but matched Gbinije's 18 points to lead the Orange.

Cooney played great on defense during SU's press run and was a stable presence offensively at the beginning of each half.

The Dark Side

Making Syracuse's win over Virginia Tech that much more impressive was how little they got from players not named Christmas, Gbinije or Cooney, who provided 71 percent of Syracuse's offense against the Hokies.

That will not get it done against better teams on the horizon on the ACC slate, as Jim Boeheim detailed at his post-game press conference.

Ron Patterson did have some strong drives to the hoop during the second half but drew Boeheim's ire for his insistence on shooting 3's.

Boeheim, raising his voice while discussing the matter at his press conference, implored Patterson to stop taking so many outside shots.

"After 22 games you have to look at the numbers and say you can't make it," Boeheim said. "I can shoot 15 percent right now. I'm 70 years old."

Kaleb Joseph's weakness in adjusting to the college game has been on the defensive end, and those struggles showed again against Virginia Tech.

Boeheim cited four possessions where Joseph did not slide properly in the zone, leaving a Hokies team that is one of the best in the ACC at shooting the 3 with high percentage opportunities.

Tyler Roberson did grab 11 rebounds but missed out on chance to be the fourth option Syracuse desperately needs on offense. Boeheim said after the game that Roberson is still not comfortable on the offensive end.

Boeheim pleaded with Roberson, Patterson Joseph and with B.J. Johnson to provide some kind of relief to the "big three" the Orange are leaning on so heavily in Cooney, Gbinije and Christmas.

"We're playing with three guys. That's hard to do in college basketball," Boeheim said. "That's hard to do. Somehow by this stage of the year, Tyler, Ronnie and Kaleb should be able to contribute. B.J. has been shooting well in practice, the best he has shot, so we decided to go with him. But defensively he gives up stuff that we can't afford him to."

Free throws nearly cost Syracuse their first win against Virginia Tech and sat as an unused resource (put aside Gbinije's two with 18.9 seconds to go) in this game as well.

Syracuse was 16-for-29 (55 percent) from the charity stripe.

This, That and the Other Thing

Syracuse leads the all-time series with Virginia Tech 7-2. The Orange has won the last four meetings between the two schools.

The Orange swept the season series from Virginia Tech, winning both games by just two points.

Rakeem Christmas has scored in double figures in 21 of 22 games. He has eight double-doubles, including his 15-point, 12-rebound performance against the Hokies Tuesday night.

Tweet of the night:

My SU-friend's last tweet tonight. Gonna be a hell of a morning RT
@FrozenOrangeFan
This team doesn't deserve my time tonight...good night